Bestselling Author Jessica Cage Channels Characters Out of This World in Her Urban Fantasy Fiction Books

Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author, Jessica Cage grew up in the South Side of Chicago. Despite socio-economic challenges, her family is responsible for her determination and commitment to becoming a best-selling author who channels worlds with leading, powerful people of color. She conquered the self-publishing industry and the urban fantasy genre. Now, she inspires many women to prove the naysayers wrong with the worlds she channels and the strong connections she has built with her readers.

About Jessica

Although Chicago is now a melting pot of different cultures, races, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds, historically it was a very segregated city. In order to expand her children’s horizons, Jessica’s mother often cultivated experiences for Jessica and her brother outside of their neighborhood with diverse groups, as well as influenced them in literature and the arts, specifically sci-fi, fantasy, mysticism, and magical realism. She began writing at the young age of nine for her grandmother, who loved reading books and had a massive bookcase. Jessica hoped one of her stories would have a spot in her grandmother’s bookcase one day. She knew she could bring to life the worlds that existed in her mind one day. While in grade school, she wrote with the Young Authors Program, an initiative designed to publish works of young authors. Although her father passed when she was only ten, she dealt with the loss as best as a child could.

Over the years, it became more difficult as she got older and the pain of losing her father prevented her from diving deeper into her creativity. However, while she was expecting the birth of her son at the age of 22, Jessica decided to be her child’s best role model by becoming the kind of woman that is empowered to make her dreams come true despite the challenges she would face. Jessica did not embrace motherhood as something she would juggle along with creating her dreams. It was intersected and intertwined consistently into her everyday life. She published her first book in 2010 when her son was only five months old. She involved her son in every aspect of her life as he grew older including her writing. Her son is now very independent and witnessed his mother’s commitment to her goals and the effort she put into realizing her dreams come true despite the naysayers.

Jessica Cage, Best-Selling Author, & The Caged Readers

Jessica has encountered rejection and superficial support from colleagues, as well as members of the indie publishing world. She was told indirectly that covers with light-skinned characters sold more than dark-skinned characters. However, Jessica felt there were many who felt a yearning for more representation in their favorite literature with characters of color in leading roles rather than minor roles. For this reason, Jessica, a self-claimed DIY woman, fortified her decision to pursue self-publishing. Her success is a testament to the importance of knowing your determination, commitment, and who you truly are in order to persevere past judgments, rejections, mistakes, setbacks, and learning experiences. Her fans have also contributed to her continued success through their immense support.

Jessica’s earliest fans call themselves the Caged Readers and have a Facebook group with over 300 members. In addition, she has over 77K followers on TikTok and over 825K likes on content created to promote her books. Although originally shy and introverted, connecting with her readers has allowed Jessica to share herself confidently and honestly. “There is something about connecting with a reader who has connected with your material that brings you back to yourself,” says Jessica.

“It’s more than just crafting stories. It’s more than just putting characters from wherever you are getting your energy and putting it on a page. These stories are coming to us because someone out there needs to read them. Someone out there is waiting for a message that you might not even realize your putting into that story.”

One of Jessica’s readers, who is blind and has partial hearing, began reading Jessica’s High Arc Vampire series through a special tablet from her school. Eventually, Jessica sent the Caged Reader via Facebook Messenger a few chapters at a time after the young girl no longer had access to the tablet. Jessica was thrilled to discover her fan’s deep connection to Alexa, the main character of the High Arc Vampire series who suffered from multiple sclerosis, found a cure, and then became the queen of an alien race of vampires. The reader found hope through her heroine’s experience in overcoming MS, and most importantly, also learned to not allow her disabilities to define who she is. This extremely powerful message encouraged Jessica to connect to her readers on a deeper level by staying true to her characters.

Thereafter, she continued to channel her characters who speak to her clearly with vivid details. She has always been an author driven by her characters and honors her stories despite criticism. For example, Syrinada, the main character of her highest selling Siren series, is a woman of color and is set in the middle of the South Side of Chicago to break away from the whitewashed world readers have an abundance of access to in fantasy and magical realism. Although Jessica has received criticism for not incorporating African mythology, she was committed to creating the red tail siren she had come across in her dreams, who specifically hinted at Greek mythology for Jessica to reference. Although she does explore the African diaspora for inspiration, her stories really are influenced by the characters she channels. She also received pushback on addressing sexual trauma, a controversial topic but nonetheless a really crucial issue many women of color deal with. Although she contemplated removing it, she ultimately honored her character’s story as it was true to that of many women who battled sexual trauma and prevailed.

Stay Tuned For More

Caged Readers eagerly anticipate Jessica Cage’s upcoming work including the fourth book in the Siren series and a co-writing project with L.D. Curtis. In addition, Jessica led the collaboration of six authors including E.M. Lacey, Delizhia Jenkins, Jennifer Laslie, Kish Knight, and Mikel Wilson for a series of six books to tell the story of a shared universe with elite species controlled by a high spirit. Readers can expect podcasts and panels leading up to the release of this world this Spring. Finally, she is also working on new characters inspired by the FYP on TikTok.

AAMBC Inc. is proud to honor a creative and talented Black woman author creating community and empowering worlds for people of color.

“Women have this amazing power and we really have to earn the privilege to yield it.” — Jessica Cage